Infirmary could lose another unit

Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 27/06/2008

Rochdale Infirmary is set to lose another of its services.

The Orthopaedic Trauma unit at the Infirmary will be moved from Rochdale to the Royal Oldham Hospital on 1 October this year. The unit houses, among its trauma related care facilities, five male beds and six for women.

Doctors at both the Infirmary and Oldham Hospital have reportedly been informed of the decision and a fracture clinic has been set up in Oldham to cope with the new patient intake.

Patients from Rochdale suffering trauma from a broken limb will have to travel to Oldham for treatment.

The news has upset Councillor Jean Ashworth, who has campaigned to save Rochdale Infirmary's services. She said: "This is a bombshell yet again for Rochdale.

"Any person suffering trauma from a broken limb will not be treated in Rochdale; things such as severe football and rugby injuries, car and motor bike injuries, children falling and breaking an arm or leg, an elderly person falling and breaking a bone.

"Oldham can't cope with what they are already dealing with and are on constant divert. This is another service we should not be losing. I am really disturbed that Rochdale is losing this service as it is yet again the most vulnerable people who are going to suffer. It is a disgrace."

Health officials say that the proposal to close the service has not yet been confirmed and that patients will not have do anything different even if the changes get the green light. A joint statement from Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust and Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the Infirmary, said: “Following the Healthy Futures decision we have been working with staff and stakeholders through a range of groups to consider how we implement the changes and improvements to services for patients. 

“Through one of these groups a proposal has emerged to improve the quality of care on the Rochdale and Oldham sites for patients requiring a specialist orthopaedic service. This proposal would involve patients in Rochdale who suffer an accident or injury that requires specialist emergency orthopaedic care being transferred to the Oldham site and some patients from the Oldham area requiring a planned orthopaedic operation being treated on the Rochdale site.

“These proposals have not been agreed at this stage and are currently being worked up into a proper implementation plan to enable discussion with key stakeholders.

“It is anticipated that approximately 15 patients per week will be affected by these changes. The advantages of the proposed changes will be to improve the quality of care received by patients by concentrating specialist expertise. The changes will also enable a new foot and ankle service to be set up in Rochdale for the benefit of patients in Rochdale and Oldham.

“If these changes do go ahead patients will not need to do anything differently if they have an accident requiring specialist orthopaedic treatment.”